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David Myers, John Dirk Werkman Professor of Psychology at Hope College in Michigan, is a prolific and respected author. His psychology textbooks are used at about 1,000 colleges and universities, while his other writings have explored the psychology of religion, sexual orientation, terrorism fears, ESP, and his own battle with hearing loss. His most recent book is The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty (Yale University Press), which was recently excerpted in Christianity Today. Yale University Press will publish his next book, Intuition: Its Powers and Perils, in September.

What is the American Paradox?

On the one hand, we've been soaring materially. Our civil rights have been expanding. We've got technology galore, and we love it all. These are the best of times. At the same time, we've got unprecedented numbers of children having children. Our teens have become more suicidal and violent. We've become more demoralized and depression-prone as adults. We live in an era that can be described as one of plenty, but also spiritual hunger. And that's the paradox. Expanding wealth and sinking spirits.

What do you mean when you use the term social recession?

From 1960 to the early 1990s we've seen several trends, including a doubling of the divorce rate, a tripling of the teen suicide rate, a quadrupling of the rate of reported violence, a quintupling of the prison population in the United States, and a sextupling in the percentage of babies born to unmarried parents. Everybody, whether you're Planned Parenthood or Focus on the Family, agrees this has not been for the betterment of children. Fortunately, some of these trends, such as juvenile violence, for example, and teen suicide have begun to abate as the culture awakens to what's been happening and as we begin to reverse some of these trends. But we're still a long ways from the communal spirit and the health that marked family life back in 1960.

What happened that triggered this radical individualism?

Advancing materialism. A capitalist free enterprise economic system is conducive to individualism. We're a country that was founded out of respect for individual rights and liberties, and that's something that I celebrate. The concern, however, is that we've gotten out of balance. Individual liberties are now taking priority over communal responsibilities. But there has been an increase in what's been called "communitarian" thinking in the last half a dozen years, and now we've agreed that maybe it's okay to have restraints on smoking or other restrictions on personal liberties in the interests of the group as a whole.

But when it gets to policy approaches to solving those problems, we still end up getting locked into very different approaches, don't we?

Especially on some issues where the culture war still is being fought, like abortion, gay rights, and tax policies. But there are other issues where, it seems to me, there's an emerging near consensus, such as the mass media's toxic effects on youth culture or the need for rebuilding character education in American schools.

How is it that people still believe money could make them happier?

If you ask people would money make you happier, they deny it. And yet, this last fall, 73 percent of entering American collegiates—that's double the percentage nearly of 30 years ago—said it was very important, or essential, that they be very well off financially. That was the number one ranked goal among 19 listed, outranking helping others in difficulty, raising a family, becoming an expert in one's profession. Those are important things, too. But being very well off financially, in their minds, defines the good life. It's the American Dream.

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June (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46